The St. Joseph’s Prep
Board of Trustees named Rev. John W. Swope, S.J., as the school’s 32nd
President. He succeeds Rev. George W. Bur, S.J., who stepped down in June after
seven years at the helm of his alma mater. Fr. Swope was installed September 8,
2015 as part of the school’s annual Mass of the Holy Spirit, which has been a
Jesuit tradition for more than 400 years.

Fr. Swope, a 1972 graduate of St. Joes Prep, comes
to the Prep having served as Founding President of Cristo Rey Jesuit High
School in Baltimore since 2006. There, he helped establish the school, which brings
high-quality Jesuit education to families who might not otherwise have the
opportunity to send their children to private school. Indeed, the school has
become a wonderful resource for families from Baltimore City’s most under-served
neighborhoods, and as the school’s Founding President, Fr. Swope worked closely
with benefactors, community leaders, corporations and foundations to help set
the school on a firm footing. And it is – nearly all Cristo Rey Jesuit students
become first generation college students, and 100% have been accepted into
college.

Fr. Swope has held many
positions, both in the U.S. and in Chile. Before his tenure at Cristo Rey
Baltimore, he spent four years (2002-06) as Executive Assistant to the
Provincial of the Maryland Jesuits and two years (2000-02) as the Executive
Director of the Secretariat for the Church in Latin America of the United
States Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington, D.C. Prior to that, he
served for seven years in Chile, working as Director of Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo de la Educación in Santiago
and as an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Educational Theory and Policy
and the Institute of Sociology at the Catholic University of Chile.

Three past Prep Presidents were in attendance to honor the installation of new President Fr. John Swope, SJ '72 (second from left): (l-r) Fr. George Bur, SJ '59, Fr. Bill Byron, S.J. '45 and Fr. Milt Jordan.

“I am excited and humbled by the opportunity
to be the next President of St. Joseph’s Prep and to continue the legacy that
has stretched over 160-plus years,” says Fr. Swope. “I believe that the Prep
occupies a unique place among independent boys’ schools in the Philadelphia
area and offers families an outstanding, Catholic, Jesuit college prep
education for their sons. I look forward to working with the Prep’s talented
faculty and staff to educate men of conscience, competence and compassion.”

Fr. Swope holds a Ph.D. in
Sociology from the University of London, Licentiate in Theology and Master of
Divinity degrees from the Weston School of Theology, and he is a graduate of
King’s College in Wilkes-Barre. He served as a Trustee at St. Joseph’s Prep, Saint
Joseph’s University, Loyola Blakefield in Baltimore and Cristo Rey Philadelphia.
Fr. Swope is a native of Drexel Hill who joined the Society of Jesus in 1976.

May 27, 2020 - Now more than ever, we invoke God to wipe away the darkness of anxiety, allowing us to be guided by the light of Christ and to trust in God’s promise of new life. Over the last few months, our Jesuit provinces have been in a place we don’t often find ourselves, a place that saw our schools closed, parishes empty, and the halls of our retreat centers giving new meaning to the word “silent.”

May 12, 2020 - Susan Baber has been named the Associate Provincial Assistant for Secondary Education for the new USA East Jesuit Province. The new province will come into being on July 31, Susan will assume this new role in August.